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In wake of Nev. shooting, police review school safety

RENO — Millions of dollars worth of new security fencing, hundreds of hours of training and dozens of school police officers could not stop the unimaginable — a student with a gun who was willing to use it.

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In wake of Nev. shooting, police review school safety

Martha Bellisle, Reno Gazette-Journal
2 p.m. MST October 27, 2013

One teacher was killed and two students injured before 12-year-old gunman took his own life.

Police respond Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, to a shooting at Sparks Middle School in Sparks, Nev., where a student shot and killed a teacher and wounded two other students before killing himself.(Photo: Marilyn Newton, Reno Gazette-Journal)

Story Highlights

School district police has 38 officers overseeing 118 school sites

District police are asking what they should do differently

Safety improvements include new fencing, new locks on all doors, regular emergency response training

RENO — Millions of dollars worth of new security fencing, hundreds of hours of training and dozens of school police officers could not stop the unimaginable at Sparks (Nev.) Middle School last week — a student with a gun who was willing to use it.

For unknown reasons, 12-year-old Jose Reyes arrived at the schoolyard early Monday with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and opened fire at math teacher Michael Landsberry and two students. Landsberry died at the scene, and Reyes fatally shot himself in the head.

By most accounts, the response by school officials and local law enforcement helped to limit the number of injuries and fatalities.

Washoe County (Nev.) School District Police Chief Mike Mieras said they'll review what happened to see whether any changes to protocols are needed for dealing with violence at the district's 93 schools.

"Schools are still the safest place for kids to be," said Mieras. "We had procedures in place, and the teachers stepped up. But every time there's an incident here or anywhere in the nation, we look at what happened and ask ourselves, 'What do we have in place and what should we do differently?'

"You can always improve on everything," he said.

Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, said school shootings happen quickly, and an "ideal scenario" would be to have an officer based at every school. But he acknowledged there are financial limitations to that plan.

"It's difficult to be effective when you're patrolling," he said. "The majority of the shootings are over before outside law enforcement can respond. If you're waiting for outside help, the shooting is over, it's such a short time frame.

“We had procedures in place, and the teachers stepped up. But every time there's an incident here or anywhere in the nation, we look at what happened and ask ourselves, 'What do we have in place and what should we do differently?'”

Police Chief Mike Mieras, Washoe County (Nev.) School District

"When someone has made up their mind that they're going to take someone else's life, that is the most difficult thing for us to stop."

The school district's police force has 38 officers who oversee 118 school sites. One officer is in charge of patrolling five schools in the Sparks Middle School area, Mieras said. The district only has officers on-campus at the high schools, he said. Officers patrol around the elementary and middle schools, he said.

When asked whether his force is understaffed, Mieras said "in an ideal world" he would have more officers, but from his perspective, "we are ahead of the game" in terms of providing a safe environment for children.

Like Washoe County, most school districts across the country have been unable to post an officer at every school, Canady said. The school resource officers' association has counted about 98,000 school buildings in the country, while there are roughly 10,000 to 14,000 school officers, he said.

The Washoe school district has made a list of safety improvements in recent years that, coupled with officers, keep the campuses safe, Mieras said. These include a $4.8 million fencing project and new locks on all doors. They've also implemented regular emergency response training sessions for staff.

When shots rang out at the middle school, the reaction began within seconds:

• The Sparks Police dispatchers handled a flood of calls for help while also trying to obtain information about the exact location of the shooter.

• A Sparks police and a school patrol officer arrived at the scene within three minutes of the initial call and were soon aided by Reno police, Washoe County Sheriff's deputies and Nevada Highway Patrol.

• School staff reacted by placing the school in lock down, shuttling the students to a secure location.

Math teacher Joe Paraz told a 911 dispatcher that students had run inside the building saying they "had a gun pointed at them, so we locked down the building," according to the emergency response tapes. The dispatcher assured Paraz that police, fire and medical personnel were on the way.

"As long as you guys know (about the shooting), we're happy," Paraz told the dispatcher.

Sparks police Lt. Erick Thomas said the fact that the shooting occurred at 7:16 a.m. meant that more personnel were on duty — the day-shift begins work at 6 a.m. and graveyard shift gets off at 8 a.m.

"It was helpful to have that overlap," he said.

As officers from different agencies arrived, they began communicating on one radio channel as they tried to identify the location of the violence, surround that area and then begin to evacuate those who were trapped in and around the school, he said. All have ongoing "active shooter" training so their response was synchronized.

Agents stationed in Reno, Nev., from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were not on the scene in Sparks, though they have always responded to mass shootings in the region.

Identifying warning signs of potential violence

Signs that a child may be troubled and possibly violent:

• Has a violent past and/or has brought a weapon to school

• Has tantrums and outbursts of anger and makes violent threats when angry

• Exhibits antisocial behaviors from a young age and has few or no close friends

• Is abusive to animals

• Is preoccupied with weapons or violence

• Has been a victim of abuse or neglect, and/or has witnessed domestic abuse or violence

• Lacks proper adult supervision

Sources: Guide for Preventing and Responding to School Violence, International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Bureau of Justice Assistance